


Branches and Berries

by Measured



Series: Culture Clashes [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21957745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: Reyson gives Tibarn a stick, but Tibarn, not being a Heron, doesn't get the message.
Relationships: Reyson/Tibarn (Fire Emblem)
Series: Culture Clashes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810048
Comments: 16
Kudos: 96





	Branches and Berries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kiu227](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiu227/gifts).



> Post-game. Happy Holidays, Kiu.
> 
> Also note there is Naesala/Leanne and Rafiel/Nailah. I didn't tag them because they only show up for a few scenes. Enjoy!

Songbirds sang above them in the peaceful, reformed Serenes forest. No longer was it ruins and ash and ghosts, but now the entire bird kingdom thrived here in the capital of the united bird laguz kingdom which spanned from Phoenicis on, to Serenes and even the land of the ravens, and all the coasts between them.

The meeting with the senate was done for the day, a task which ever slippery Naesala was far too adept at. No surprise, given how fluently Naesala lied that he would become such a talented politician. Though perhaps for once, Tibarn should be grateful for Naesala's silver tongue, as his oratory skills had helped smooth over a trade deal with Begnion

Tibarn stretched his wings, as Reyson lingered on in the shade of the forest. He knelt down and picked something--was it a flower? Tibarn glanced back, a bit sleepily.

"Find something?"

Tibarn came closer, only to see that Reyson had picked up a stick.

Reyson held out the stick, with a slight tinge of pink to his cheeks. "For you."

Tibarn smiled."Are you making one of those human tools to poke the enemy with?"

Reyson's face twisted into a grimace. "Hardly!"

"Sharpen it at the end, and it'd be--" He tried to show, but the flimsy stick, likely all that Reyson could lift, broke in his hands. Reyson's face filled with shock, then anger.

"It's a stick, Reyson. There's no need for any fury. We can pick up twenty more on the way out of the forest."

" _Just_ a stick? I see how I merit," Reyson said tightly, and turned on his heel to stalk off.

Tibarn let out a sigh and shook his head. Tibarn certainly didn't see how a stick had gone to Reyson getting angry, or lobbing such patently false claims at him. Tibarn had lifted him from the flames, and kept him an treasured guest--and far more--for many, many years. Reyson certainly could be moody at times, and prone to a stormy temper, but he always came around eventually.

Though, it came to mind that he was learning entirely new things about Reyson. Such as an affinity for sticks that he never guessed.

*

He decided to let Reyson stew a while, before the fight got worse, and instead sought out some of Reyson's few remaining family members. It was Rafiel he found first, as he rested in the shade of a flowering tree in pristine flowing robes robes, his wolf queen rested wife at his feet, with her head laid in his lap. He would on occasion, scratch behind her ears. Flowers were braided in his long, luxuriously blond hair, though whose handiwork he couldn't say. (He guessed Leanne.)

Rafiel looked up as Tibarn approached. "Ah, there you are. Reyson has just left....rather angry, I am afraid."

"No surprise there."

Reyson rubbed at his neck. "It feels as if we had a one-sided fight in another language, one I don't understand," he said.

"Then, please tell me the details. Reyson was too angry to properly communicate what had gotten him into quite a state."

"He had seemed fine the entire day. Maybe a little irritated by interacting with the Begnion senate, but that is a given."

"And then he suddenly grew angered? I am sorry, I do not see what could have drawn his ire this time."

"Well, then we left together. And.... Oh, that's right. He gave me a stick."

"A _stick?_ " Rafiel said.

"Yes, exactly. It was rather small and flimsy and broke in my hands while I was showing him how it could be turned into one of those beorc tools--a spear, I believe they're called."

Rafiel closed his eyes, and flinched. "Oh, no wonder he was so angered."

"Rafiel, I do not have a clue what's going on his his head. Are sticks so important in your culture? Are they considered sacred somehow? Reyson never mentioned it before. Given there's over twenty years between us, I should think it would've come up."

"Perhaps hawk culture is different. Indeed, when I gave Nailah a stick, she thought I meant to play fetch and ended up biting it in two. Not only that, she brought me plenty of meat she caught herself to propose, without realizing that I do not eat such things. Many tears were shed that day..though we can laugh about it now."

"So, the stick is significant?"

Rafiel nodded. "You could say that, yes."

Before Rafiel could explain, a certain interruption came. Naesala walked with Leanne, who clutched to his hand. She looked up at him, rapt as he related the happenings at the daily senate. Leanne had spent the day singing to a bird with an injured wing in order to keep its spirits up, and had missed the senate hearings.

(Though, Tibarn thought, Naesala's retelling of events seemed rather _exaggerated_ upon his own behalf.)

Naesala's wings were folded, black against his back, and almost the exact shade of his leather suit. His face softened as he looked to Leanne, resplendent in her white robes, and shining in love and adoration as she reacted to each part of his story.

A large stick blocked their path. Leanne stared down at it with a certain awe--what _was_ with these foolish birds and their sticks?s

Leanne let go of him, and bent down to pluck up a stick, much as Reyson had, he thought now.

Leanne blushed so deeply, and innocently as she handed Naesala a perfectly ordinary stick.

"How brazen, right in front of Tibarn," Naesala said, his voice silky and low.

 _I do not care,_ she replied in the ancient tongue. _I am not marrying him."_

He accepted it and took it to his chest. "I am honored to accept your proposal. It will make a beautiful nest for us."

Flushed cheeked, with a smile as bright as new spring, she broke out in a beautiful song.

Wait, _nest?_

And everything began to fall into place.

"Giving a stick is a Heron's way of proposing. It the first foundation of a nest. He likely thought you would know that, being the guardian of all heron culture for some years now," Rafiel said, giving voice to the thoughts that had just begun to settle in his mind.

"Oh, I'm a complete idiot," Tibarn said.

"Exactly what I've been saying all along, but not just about this," Naesala said smoothly.

Leanne tapped at his arm. _Be nice._

"He can't kill me any longer, love. After all," he turned to Tibarn with a smirk, "Now we'll be family. Should I call you 'brother'?"

Tibarn gritted his teeth. Had any worse words ever been spoken? But he couldn't tarry, not with Reyson on the warpath. Never mind that the most carnage he could do was a ripple in the pond of a skipped stone. He had to fix this.

How, he couldn't begin to fathom, but Tibarn would think of something.

"Congratulations, is in order, I suppose. I hope you can become the man Leanne thinks you," Tibarn said gruffly.

"Me too," Naesala said.

"I've something to attend to," Tibarn said as way of a goodbye. He outstretched his massive brown wingspan and took flight.

Surely, some air would clear his head.

*

They'd been lovers for many years, in a way understated, and did not need many words between them. However, if matedom, and marriage had certainly crossed his mind. The only thing was wars kept popping up, ruining all his plans.

(He was fairly certain that was the reason why Ike and Soren had eloped to another country. He couldn't blame them for wanting to miss the next break out of stupidity and violence. Peace couldn't last forever, especially with Naesala to be his in-law.)

However, Reyson's diet had put him in a hard-on and a hard place. How exactly was he supposed to show off his prowess in courting when Reyson thought every other creature other than humans were 'friends, not food'? He couldn't exactly show off his skills _Picking berries._ Ah, yes. He'd be a damn manly sight with his fingers stained red from plucking nature's bounty right there from those perfectly defenseless berries.

A suitable hawk courtship would involve him bringing Reyson several nice catches. A whole net full of fish, a boar, or even a nice deer.

None of those worked for his intended mate. Reyson would probably be angrier if Tibarn brought him a fresh kill.

But, it just didn't have the same feeling to proudly display the berry bush he had plucked up himself, even if he did get thorns in his hands, which he could show as battle scars.

Tibarn chewed on his lower lip as he surveyed the renewed Serenes Forest. Maybe if he arranged a lot of the berries and greenery it would at least have an impressive look to it. As impressive as a pile of leaves and berries could manage.

As he walked towards the patch of colorful berries, he lifted up a rather large limb that had fallen down in the last storm. His hands tightened about the bark. This one didn't break so easily.

Fine. Reyson wanted sticks? He could have them. Tibarn would give him so many sticks, the place would look like a battlefield of thrown lances and arrows.

No hunting in the newly formed Serenes Forest. Reyson would never let him live it down.

*

He found Reyson in the rebuilt shadows of the temple. A few leaves caught in his long blond hair, as if he had been braving the brambles the entirety of the last hours.

"I've been looking for you," Tibarn said.

Reyson was bent before some kind of flimsy basket contraption. In his lap was a wild rabbit, whose ears he disconsolately stroked. His head was bent down, and he could not tell if it was in contemplation or sadness His long, golden hair fell down his back, untethered over his white wings.

"I didn't mean to go and be an idiot and insult you; There's some parts of Heron culture I never knew. Proposals being one of them."

Reyson shook his head. "I...too am at fault. I shouldn't have assumed you knew, or that your culture would be exactly the same."

He let out a soft sigh.

"I spoke to Janaff. Hawks propose to each other with fresh kills, not with sticks. No surprise, given that you live upon the cliffs over the waters...."

Reyson closed his green eyes.

"I tried. I lured this poor, defenseless creature here with my song and a trap. But I could not bring myself to make the killing blow. I even tried to imagine that it were that utterly putrid senator who tried to buy me. But...I still couldn't do it. I still cannot."

He set the rabbit down and it hopped away into the brush.

It was cute, honestly. Reyson not even able to take down a defenseless little rabbit. Reyson, who had been so willing to punch out that putrid senator, who never strayed from a fight and yet a little forest creature was his defeat.

"That's what I like about you."

Reyson finally smiled.

"Leave the killing to me, Reyson. I'm much better at it."

"Indeed, you do it so well. You have kept me, and all the remaining Herons safe for so many years," Reyson said.

He rested his large, calloused palm on Reyson's shoulders.

"You want sticks? You'll get all the sticks."

He led Reyson up to the place where he'd started.

Reyson's green eyes widened at the sight of Tibarn's work. He'd made a nest big enough to fit a transformed dragon. The largest sticks he could find, and some young trees for good measure.

"Tibarn, those aren't just sticks, those are _trees_ you uprooted personally and carried here that's....actually rather attractive..."

Tibarn smirked. He'd managed to make this whole thing impressive after all, even if it was merely branches and berries.

Right before it was a pile of leaves made for a banquet, an artful plate of berries.

"Ah, it looks delicious...."

He turned to Tibarn.

"You know, I spoke to one of the beorc--Ike's sister, to be exact. She told me the the beorc give each other rings as a custom. Though, I wouldn't think you'd want a beorc custom, even now."

"No....I have forgiven them much more than they deserve, but I do not wish to adopt many of their customs," Reyson said.

He stared out at the spectacle of the giant nest of sticks.

"This is a beautiful display.... However, you should know that you've had my heart for many a year. My answer is, and always has been, that I want nothing more than to be your mate completely."

"I could say the same to you. I've never been anything but blunt about my feelings for you. But somehow, I missed what you were trying to say back there."

"It seems we've been running in circles and chasing our tail feathers at this point," Reyson said.

Tibarn lifted a stick from the nest, and handed it to Reyson. "So, for forever?"

Reyson took the stick with a smile. "Forever."


End file.
